Such a fixing apparatus is, for example, applied to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus to fix a toner image transferred on a recording sheet by clamping the recording sheet between respective rotating member (such as a belt, and a roller) and by applying heat and pressure to the recording sheet.
In the above-described fixing apparatus, the oil roller may bring into contact with the rotating member to apply oil on a surface of the rotating member for the purpose of preventing the toner on the recording sheet from transferring and adhering to the surface of the rotating member. Generally, the oil roller is pressed against the rotating member and the rotating member is rotated so that the oil roller is driven to rotate. Thus, oil of the oil roller is uniformly applied on the surface of the rotating member.
However, if paper powder or toner is adhered onto the surface of the rotating member or the surface of the oil roller to cause unevenness of the surface, the oil roller may not be able to move over such an unevenness, and may be slipped and stopped. Also, the oil roller may be variably rotated. As a result, an oil layer formed on the surface of the rotating member may be ununiform.
In view of the foregoing, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 disclose that a dedicated motor for driving the oil roller is provided in order to constantly rotate the oil roller, or to control a rotation speed of the oil roller.